sql server replication: Chris,
provided all your subscribers are set up, then you can disable the snapshot
agent job and just run it on demand.
Cheers,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com
(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)

There are two theories on this.

The first is that you need consider how quickly you wish to deploy your
snapshots to your subscribers. In this case you would need to generate your
snapshots quickly. Otherwise run it on demand.

The second is the number of subscribers you are deploying. If you have large
numbers of subscribers you will probably need to use anonymous subscribers
which require you to generate snapshots frequently to keep your metadata
retention down. If you have small numbers, run it on demand.

--
Hilary Cotter
Director of Text Mining and Database Strategy
RelevantNOISE.Com - Dedicated to mining blogs for business intelligence.

This posting is my own and doesn't necessarily represent RelevantNoise's
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[quoted text, click to view]

Does the merge snapshot agent really need to take a snapshot every 24 hours?
I just discovered this, I have some really large tables in merge and am
noticing contention/blocking at the pub each night at midnight...

Can i have it safely do this once per week? Does it really need to be 1 /
day???

Thanks
Chris